So this time round I'm back at The Bakery Chef, for more lava toasts and also their mid-Autumn festival special mooncakes.

Let's start off by talking about the lava toasts first.

An important point to note would be the improvement in texture and taste of their brioche toasts. Perhaps it is due to a change in recipe or simply the opportunity to focus on creating quality-assured toasts (as the café experiences a lessening of crowd), the reason for which we shall never know.

All durian lovers should run straight for the Mao Shan Wang Durian Toast as it is packed full with the good and authentic stuff. The filling is rich and creamy and pungent, just like how a good Mao Shan Wang durian should be! The creamy rich texture combined with the cubes of toasted-to-crisp brioche toast... it is a well-executed fusion dessert that would appeal to any Asian.

For non-durian lovers (like myself), you would be pleased to know that we have an alternative reason to choose from — their Date Pudding with Toffee Lava Toast.

The Date Pudding resembles a plum-flavoured sponge cake, and the toffee... well it tastes like toffee (duh!). My preference for the Date Pudding with Toffee Lava Toast comes as no surprise as this new lava toast flavour is one-of-its-kind and the perfected sweet-savoury balance is undeniably alluring.

Mid-autumn festival is back again! It is the time of the year where the moon is (supposedly) the roundest and families gather for a reunion. Pomelos are peeled, lanterns are lit and mooncakes are sliced. Have you bought your family some mooncakes yet?

Make your reservation at Peony Jade Restaurant for a delicacy-filled Chinese menu and an extensive range of mooncakes available for dessert. Read on for a gist of the recommended dishes and the mooncakes that Peony Jade has got!

Deep Fried Bull Frog Tossed in Spiced Fragrant Salt 椒盐田鸡

For lovers of bull frog congee, rejoice because this dish will most definitely satisfy your craving for this succulent meat!

This is my virgin attempt at bull frog, and I gotta admit that it is like what people say: It is like eating chicken but with a fishy taste. I hadn't expect the meat to be so soft and succulent, especially since it is deep fried, the crispy batter coating gave an emphasis to the texture of the meat.

The fragrant salt pepper marination helped to mask some of the fishy taste of the bull frog and gave an intense savoury umami flavour to the dish. I couldn't help but to pick on the crispy flour bits mixed with the spiced fragrant salt!

Boiled Chicken Consomme with Conch and Maca Root 玛卡响螺炖鸡汤

Now we are having some real chicken! (lol)

Consomme refers to a type of clear soup made from richly flavored stock. In this case, the stock used would be chicken, conch and maca root. The end-result is a refreshing sweet-savoury soup that is bound to appease everyone's palate.

Prime Pork Tenderloin with Japanese Roasted Sesame Sauce 胡麻酱香煎黑豚肉

Tender slices of pork loin accompanied with a fragrant roasted sesame sauce... this dish exudes a sense of comfort! It is probably due to the use of a common household meat – pork – paired with a savoury sauce that appeals to all Asians.

Fillets of Garoupa with Black Truffle & Green Asparagus 黑松露芦笋炒海斑球

Red Garoupa is a fish commonly used and consumed during wedding banquets. This type of fish is known for its succulent sweet meat without an over-bearing fishy smell or taste.

A simple stir-fry of this fish with black truffle and asparagus, helped to bring out the sweetness of the fish meat and the pairing of asparagus gave some added texture to the dish.

Salt Baked Hairy Crab 盐焗大闸蟹

The Salt Baked Hairy Crab from Peony Jade is renown and definitely a must-order dish. With it being wrapped in a layer of herbs and another layer of salt (before being baked), the crab meat is sweet and fragrant but it does require some level of patience to extract the precious crustacean meat slowly and gently.

Hong Kong Egg Noodle Bathed in Scallion Oil 太子捞全蛋面

I know... This is all carbs but is also my favourite dish out of them all! This seemingly-simple dish carried so much flavour in each strand of noodle. The scallion oil was so fragrant and each bite of this Hong Kong egg noodles brought on a wave of umami sensation!

Mooncakes 月饼

This blog post is about the mooncakes, and here it finally is. Peony Jade has prepared a range of mooncakes to suit the tastebuds of all their diners.

Flaky Teochew Mooncakes

They have got your mooncakes in the traditional baked mooncake skin, snowskin mooncakes, and lastly flaky teochew mooncakes! The mooncakes also come in a variety of flavours from champagne truffle to durian, and the popular lotus paste with salted egg yolk!

Check out their Facebook page for more information on the available flavours as well as where you can get them.

Hotel Jen Tanglin Singapore is situated at the corner of our popular city district, Orchard. This 4* hotel, part of the Shangri-La group, is now launching a new dining promotion at their J65 restaurant, which allows you to Eat Through The Week with a series of dining options from Monday to Sunday.

Dependent on the day that you choose to visit the restaurant, you will get to experience a different theme buffet experience everyday of the week! From Crab! It's Monday... to Sunday's It's Local!, scroll on to find out the various exciting daily dinner buffet choices.

'Eat Through The Week' Dinner Buffet
The latest dining promotion at J65 restaurant

MONDAY:

Crab! It’s Monday...
Starting off with a crab feast on the very first day of the week, Hotel Jen Tanglin celebrates the ending of the worst of the week with Salted Egg Crab, Black Pepper Crab and Homemade Crab Popiah!

TUESDAY:

Beef Yourself Up!
With the intention to help 'beef' up your Tuesday, there is nothing more manly than a big, beefy steak, so Tuesday is topped off with Roast Rib Eye with Condiments, Authentic Sup Ekor and Beef Rendang Tok. ‘Beer’ Yourself Up with Tiger Beer Draft for just SGD5++!

WEDNESDAY:

Lobster Rock ‘n’ Roll
Its hump day and with the week-end on the horizon, you can afford to let your hair down on Wednesday with a Hand Tossed Lobster Roll, Roasted Lobster Bisque and Singapore Lobster Laksa. As per Wednesday night tradition, Ladies can enjoy the first sampler Sangria for free and subsequently, one-for-one Sangria at $14++ the whole night long.

THURSDAY:

His Majesty the King Prawn
Thursday sees the coronation of the King Prawn, with Baked Sea Salt King Prawns, Claypot Live Prawns in Herbal Broth and Penang Prawn Mee.

FRIDAY and SATURDAY:

Hooked! Seafood Mania
Finally, it’s the week-end! This Friday and Saturday, you deserve to indulge with a night full of fresh seafood including Fin de Claire oysters, lobsters, crabs, prawns and scallops.

Yes I know I've been introducing a lot of buffets lately and the sequence of today's blog post is a tad more confusing than usual. I thought long and hard before deciding on this current format.

One of the reasons on why I have chosen to share this buffet dinner in this style is due to my desire to spread the wonders of this buffet as well as its interesting concept. This is (so far) the only buffet that I have come across that has decided to challenge its limits by offering a different theme buffet (almost) every single day of the week.

The photos of the dishes that you see above (for each day of the week) are main highlights for each buffet dinner and I've tried them all. They were fantastic and my favourites have got to be Crab! It's Monday... and Wednesday's Lobster Rock and Roll! — my love for crustaceans shall never die!

I attended the food tasting on a Wednesday, and so it means I can share in depth of what the food is like on a Lobster day. Let me take you through it with more photos!

Starting off with some chilled poached lobsters on a bed of ice, how could we miss out on having succulent Boston Lobsters on a Lobster Night? It is a buffet dinner so grab as many as your stomach can fit!

Perhaps some prawns, mussels or crabs instead?

We've also got a DIY Rojak Station that I highly approve and recommend. The rojak prawn paste that they have concocted is THE BOMB! You can mix however you like and your rojak would still taste fantastic!!!

The Rojak

On Lobster Day, the Kueh Pie Tee Station gets an interesting twist: De-shelled half prawns are switched out for shredded lobster meats, just to follow the theme and to add a tinge bit more of sweetness to your local Nyonya delicacy.

Kueh Pie Tee with Lobster Meat

One of the highlights of the night was this bowl of Lobster Laksa Noodles, that was rich in flavour and with a generous half of a lobster and meat dumplings.

Soup of the Day - Lobster Bisque

I had so many bowls of their Lobster Bisque with a few chunks of crispy Croutons and bits of lobster meat within. The Lobster Bisque was so good and flavourful that the staff had to keep bringing the pot back to the kitchen to get it refilled!

Even before this writing assignment, I have been a big fan of NIVEA's sun care products. They are my go-to brand when I need a bottle of sun protection or moisturiser during my travels — there is no other brand that I'd trust more than them.

I will be entirely honest and tell you that I know no nuts about sun screen. I am the sort of girl who would dash out under the sun without any sun protection, insisting that I am doing so because I wanna get tanned. And later on, I regret my ass off when my skin becomes lobster red and painful.

It isn't true that putting sunscreen on means not getting a tan. You can still become tanned, minus the process of enduring burnt skin and having to shed your dead epidermis layer like a snake.

NIVEA has recently altered the formulation to two of their products, and I brought both bottles of sunscreen lotions with me on my recent trip to Nongsa Point Marina & Resort in Batam.

Looking at the results: NIVEA Protect & Moisture Sun Lotion under a 'normal' camera and a 'UV' camera

What you can't see, does not mean it isn't protected.

The new and improved NIVEA Protect & Moisture Sun Lotion SPF 50 PA ++ offers both immediate sun protection and moisturising benefits in one product. Get 24-hour moisturisation with this caring sunscreen formula that contains hydrating ingredients such as Panthenol (a provitamin of B5) and Glycerin which supports your skin's protective barrier.

Its moisturising level is comparable to a body lotion and that would help to keep your skin feeling soft and hydrated all day, under the sun and even in water with its water-resistant formula!

NIVEA Protect & White Sun Lotion SPF 50 PA ++ is the next sunscreen lotion to have received an improvement in its formulation. This sunscreen is made for those looking for additional protection against darkening skin!

The double-duty lotion has upped its defence against pigmentation-causing UV rays and premature skin ageing! It also contains ingredients such as licorice extract to help lighten existing dark spots while preventing new ones from forming.

Both lotions offer an immediate and highly effective broad spectrum of sun protection with their mixture of chemical filters, absorbing UV rays and protecting our skin from sun burn.

The lotions also provide a physical UV filter, Titanium Dioxide, which forms an additional protective shield on skin and reflects UV rays, thus allowing you to enjoy your beach vacation – or in my case, time in the pool – without a worry!

Crab buffets are the best way to eat your fill of crabs for the entire year without breaking your bank account. Furthermore, you get a variety of choices – including your favourite Singaporean Chilli Crab, Black Pepper Crab or Salted Egg Yolk Crab – all at just ONE price.

PARKROYAL on Beach Road is the first PARKROYAL Hotel in Singapore to begin the yearly crustacean buffet feast and this 5th round of "The Ultimate Crab Feast" is one of the most awaited crab-inspired food events in Singapore.

Plaza Brasserie @ PARKROYAL on Beach Road has been working tirelessly to develop and create new sauce and flavours each year to excite and satiate the evolving palate of Singapore's growing crab connoisseur community. Read on to discover the new crab dishes unveiled at this Ultimate Crab Feast.

My favourites out of the six would be the Kam Heong Crab and Coffee Crab.

I am not a big fan of the taste of coffee but I do love its fragrance, and the culinary team at Plaza Brasserie has nailed this savoury Coffee Crab dish. With its thick coffee sauce combined with bits of sweet succulent crab meat dug out from these Sri Lankan Mud Crabs, the combination is perfect!

As for the Kam Heong crab, it was an interesting dish as I had never heard of Kam Heong before. Apparently "Kam Heong" is Cantonese and means 'Golden Fragrance (金香)' for the fragrance that is imparted during the cooking process. This is a signature Malaysian stir-fry style and the flavours reminded me strongly of Har Cheong Gai (shrimp paste) with a tinge of curry and chilli spice. My Asian roots just could not say "no" to this dish!

The Ginger Broth Crab did not make it to my favourite list but it would definitely be one that I have to recommend. Everyone at the table gushed over the flavourful ginger broth and no one left a drop of the soup behind in their bowls. That is how good it is, and must be tried!

In addition to the six new crab dishes, there will be still be the iconic favourites like Singapore Chilli Crab, Cereal Crab, Salted Egg Yolk Crab, Black Pepper Crab, White Pepper Craband Crab with Honey Rock Sugar.

Together with the "Ultimate Crab Feast" buffet, you can also enjoy the delicious "Best of Asia" buffet spread where other tantalising crab-inspired dishes will be available such as Crab Meat Balls with Potato, Curry Crab Meat in Kueh Pie Tee, Crab Meat Chawanmushi, Thai Glass Noodle Salad, Spicy Crab Meat Salad, Breaded Crab Cake and Pandan Liu Sha Pau in Basket.

About Me

Hi! My name is Sophie but everyone calls me Soph. I have a son named Ethan, better yet known by his nick #MiniChew. Since you’re at this space, you are probably either into Beauty, Fashion or my favourite topic of late, Parenthood. Watch this page for my honest reviews and quirky shares! xo